Friday, April 30, 2010

These days, with the multitude of global surveillance systems watching the skies, it's pretty tough to keep secret the inaugural test launch of what many suspect to be a space weapon. Which is probably one reason why the U.S. Air Force not only issued a press release, but put up a web video of the April 22 launch of its X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a smaller, robotic version of the Space Shuttle that can stay in orbit for up to 270 days before returning to Earth for eventual reuse.

So what, then, is the X-37B's real purpose? The military isn't saying. In a recent Popular Science article, the Air Force's chief scientist, Werner J.A. Dahm, was asked what he could reveal about the spacecraft. "Nothing very useful," he replied, before quickly changing the subject.

I noted with interest President Obama's April 16 visit to Cape Kennedy to rally the "workers". Certain reports have it that there were few in any "workers" invited to hear the speech. There did seem to be a lot of applause from people who were about to lose their jobs. Then on April 22 I noted the launch of an Atlas/X-37 "space plane" combination on a "secret" mission.

Had I seen this before? The Atlas/X-37 stirred my memory. In June of 1959 the Eisenhower administration awarded a contract to Boeing for a project called Dyna-Soar. This also was an Atlas/Space Plane combination very closely resembling the current configuration. The intended offensive purpose of the 1959 system sounds remarkably similar to the theories put forth for the X37. Also remarkable is the involvement of the same contractor & booster.

Iran has pledged to "cut off Israel's feet" if it attacks Syria, fuelling tensions over one of the Middle East's most combustible flashpoints after the US publicly warned Damascus not to risk starting a war.

Mohammad Rida Rahimi, the Iranian vice-president, made the statement today at the end of a visit to Syria that was billed as underlining the strategic relationship between the two countries.

Some Somali-Canadians have received a cut of the ransoms collected by pirates operating off the Horn of Africa and money may have been sent back to Somalia to fund other hijackings, according to an intelligence specialist on piracy.

Karsten von Hoesslin, a senior analyst for Risk Intelligence, told naval officers from Pacific Ocean nations gathered in Victoria for a three-day maritime security conference, that the transfer of ransom money has been tracked from Somalia to Ottawa and a number of other locations that are home to Somali communities.

"It's coming to Ottawa, it's in London and Nairobi," he said. "We know where the money is going."

My Comment: Unlike the U.S. .... post 911 .... Canada has always had a problem (or lack of will?) in tracking money going and out of the country. Being a Canadian myself .... this news does not surprise me at all.

Nuclear Terror: Over and over we've heard the military option against Iran isn't feasible because the country's nuclear sites are buried, spread out and too numerous. But even some left-leaning military figures disagree.

'If I were an Iranian leader I'd be very worried," former NATO commander and Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. "I'd be paying close attention."

My Comment:I agree with the General's assessment, the U.S. military can easily and effectively destroy Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure. The problems that will arise will not be from the attack, but from the consequences of committing ourselves to such a course of action.

Iraq's military was defeated in a few weeks, but the war has continued (at a lower intensity) to this day. The same case will be for Iran .... we can easily destroy Iran's military infrastructure, but the conflict will continue for years (primarily through terrorism) even if U.S. forces are not in Iran proper.

South Korean Army soldiers are seen atop armoured vehicles during a drill at the boder town of Paju on May 29, 2009. North Korea warned on May 27 of possible military action after South Korea announced it is joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a US-led campaign to stop the trade in weapons of mass destruction. Picture: AFP

South Korea’s Secret War -- David Axe

It may want to keep it quiet, but South Korea is developing a modern, more assertive military, says David Axe.

More than half a century since the end of the Korean War and the beginning of a long period of relative military isolation, South Korea is gradually, and quietly, playing a larger role in world security.

Despite strong US support, South Korea’s rise as a military power is complicated by domestic politics, and by a belligerent North Korea. To avoid provoking foreign and domestic opposition, Seoul has cleverly disguised its newest overseas military operation as a strictly peaceful affair.

U.S. Gulf States Mobilize for Valdez-Like Oil Spill -- Bloomberg Business Week

U.S. Interior Department inspectors began boarding deep-water platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana mobilized the National Guard as an expanding oil slick that may rival the Exxon Valdez spill approached the coast.

Future drilling must safeguard against a recurrence, President Barack Obama said today in remarks at the White House, promising a “thorough review” of the BP Plc well leak the government estimates is spewing 5,000 barrels a day.

The mass graves were found by the German army when it invaded Russia. It was immediately used as propaganda against the Russians who continued to deny they were to blame until 1990. But even today the Communist Party in Russia says the killings were carried out by German soldiers. Photo from The Daily Mail

Russia Opens Its Files On The Katyn Massacre

In a move that takes it one step closer to easing its long-running tensions with Poland, Russia on Wednesday posted online for the first time its files on the Soviet Union's World War II massacre of thousands of Polish officers in Katyn forest.

The documents — which were once classified — were opened to the public in 1992, but have mainly only been read by researchers and historians. Now for the first time, anyone with a computer can see for themselves the files that prove Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and his aides were responsible for the killings of 22,000 Polish officers in the forest in western Russia. "Let people see [the files], let them know who made the decision to kill the Polish officers," said Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who ordered that the files be published online. "It's all there in the documents. All signatures are there, all the faces are known."

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Shanghai on Friday that touched on security risks caused by the North's suspected attack on a warship from the South.

China, the reclusive and impoverished North's biggest benefactor with the most influence in Pyongyang, wants to prevent further tensions that increase the chances of war but is not about to punish its neighbor, analysts said.

Taliban leader Qari Hussain? Killed in January 2008 ... until he appeared at a news conference a few months later in Waziristan.

Al Qaeda official Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri? Annihilated in a drone attack in September ... but still able to give an exclusive interview in October.

Taliban honcho Hakimullah Mehsud? Wiped out in a missile attack in January ... or was he?

Reports on Thursday that Mehsud was only wounded in that U.S. drone attack have prompted questions about the quality of intelligence emerging from Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

My Comment: The CIA (and the Pakistan military) do not have the boots on the ground to quickly verify on who was killed and/or wounded in a drone missile strike. This lack of information will always produce false reports and analysis .... including (maybe) this one.

Vietnam today marked the 35th anniversary of the Communist victory in the Vietnam War with a grand military parade through the former Saigon and a re-enactment of North Vietnamese tanks crashing through the gates of the presidential palace.

While official speeches touted the liberation of the country, the Associated Press reports, the government basked more in their economic achievements that in the historic military defeat of the United States.

In what may be the most entertaining music video homage ever shot in a war zone, a group of American soldiers stationed at a military base in southwest Afghanistan star in a lip-synced version of Lady Gaga's hit "Telephone." The video, which yesterday began to spread online, was filmed recently inside what appears to be a garage at the Forward Operating Base in Farah Province. Posted to YouTube a week ago, the 3:45 production--complete with props, signs, and costumes--features an all-male cast from the 82nd Airborne Division.

Inquest Resumes Into Death Of Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe -- Times Online

The inquest into the death of the most senior British Army officer to be killed in action since the Falklands resumes this morning.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died alongside a teenage soldier when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on July 1 last year.

U.S. and Afghan soldiers walk with Afghan civilians to a helicopter pick-up landing site in the village of Kopak in the Mohammud-Agha district, Logar province, Afghanistan, April 22, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Russell Gilchrest

Afghanistan Forces Face Four More Years Of Combat, Warns Nato Official -- The Guardian

Nato's top civilian official in Afghanistan warns of further deaths in 'very tough year' for British and other foreign troops.

British and other foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan face a "very tough" time ahead and can expect to be engaged in a combat role for three or four more years, Nato's most senior civilian official in the country said today.

Mark Sedwill, a former UK ambassador to Afghanistan, warned of further troop deaths in the region, saying: "We cannot allow judgment of success to be the absence of casualties."

Oil From Spill Is Reported to Have Reached the Coast -- New York Times

NEW ORLEANS —Coast Guard officials were investigating reports early Friday morning that oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico had washed ashore overnight, threatening fisheries and wildlife in fragile marshes and islands along the Gulf Coast.

Officials had not confirmed whether any tentacles of the oil slick had actually touched land, but Petty Officer Shawn Eggert of the United States Coast Guard said that officials were planning a flyover Friday morning to assess how the oil was moving, and whether it was making landfall.

Police officers are sealed into protective suits during a 2005 bioterrorism drill in New Jersey. The United States is unlikely to use nuclear weapons against a biological-weapon threat, even though a recent nuclear policy review left that option available, according to analysts (Stan Honda/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON -- The United States is not likely to use nuclear force to respond to a biological weapons threat, even though the Obama administration left open that option in its recent update to the nation's nuclear weapons policy, experts say (See GSN, April 22).

"The notion that we are in eminent danger of confronting a scenario in which hundreds of thousands of people are dying in the streets of New York as a consequence of a biological weapons attack is fanciful," said Michael Moodie, a consultant who served as assistant director for multilateral affairs in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the George H.W. Bush administration.

Friction between Democratic and Republican senators is likely to complicate efforts to ratify a new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) told the Boston Globe in remarks published today (see GSN, April 28).

Signed earlier this month by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the pact would obligate the two former Cold War adversaries to both lower their respective strategic arsenals to 1,550 fielded warheads and to limit their deployed nuclear delivery vehicles -- missiles, submarines and bombers -- to 700, with another 100 permitted in reserve. Under a 2002 pact, Moscow and Washington had until 2012 to reduce their deployed strategic stockpiles to a maximum of 2,200 weapons each.

My Comment: Traditionally .... when important treaties were being negotiated and agreed upon between the U.S. and other countries .... the U.S. Senate was involved by being briefed and having their own opinions considered. However .... under this administration .... a different tack was followed in which many in the Senate are of the opinion (particularly on the Republican side) that they were deliberately left out.

There are always political consequences when a government pursues such an independent course, and the White House is going to experience this when they find that they have problems in ratifying the treaty. With a majority of Americans opposing the treaty, this is going to be an uphill battle .... especially in an election year.

U.S. and Afghan soldiers prepare to board a CH-47 Chinook helicopters to return to base after a mission in the village of Kopak, Mohammud-Agha district, Logar province, Afghanistan, April 22, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Russell Gilchrest

U.S. Report on Afghan War Finds Few Gains in 6 Months -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — A Pentagon report on the last six months in Afghanistan portrays an Afghan government with limited credibility among its people, a still active if not growing insurgency and an enormous reliance on American troops to train, outfit and finance the country’s defense forces for the foreseeable future.

The report, released on Wednesday, is mandated by Congress every six months. It points to some improvements, including an increased optimism among Afghans about their government and the slowing of the insurgency in places where NATO troops have concentrated their efforts.

According to White House budget estimates, it costs roughly $1 million a year to support the deployment of a single soldier to Afghanistan. Ever wonder why it costs so much? Landlocked country, long supply lines, poor infrastructure, yadda yadda. But how about another possible contributing factor: The reliance of the Pentagon’s main supply agency on no-bid contracts?

MEXICO CITY — As the death toll has climbed from drug-related violence in Mexico, it's fallen largely to newspapers to keep the count.

Two weeks ago, a government report that legislators leaked spoke of 22,700 deaths over little more than a three-year period, a far higher body count than the 18,000 or so given by El Universal, a leading newspaper.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

In Shift, Pakistan Considers Attack On Militant Lair -- New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani military, long reluctant to heed American urging that it attack Pakistani militant groups in their main base in North Waziristan, is coming around to the idea that it must do so, in its own interests.

Western officials have long believed that North Waziristan is the single most important haven for militants with Al Qaeda and the Taliban fighting American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan has nurtured militant groups in the area for years in order to exert influence beyond its borders.

My Comment: For the past few years U.S. military and government officials have been pushing Pakistan to conduct this offensive, but the Pakistan Government has always refrained because they knew that such an offensive would produce enormous casualties and a massive refugee crisis.

But with Pakistan's war against its Islamic extremists continuing, the Pakistan Government and military have come to the conclusion that they now have no choice .... they will now need to storm the Taliban's safe sanctuaries in North Waziristan.

The repositioning of thousands of Pakistan troops into Pakistan's Frontier regions has already changed the dynamics on the ground, but when the offensive starts .... and it will start in the next few months .... expect a massive increase in casualties and a spill over effect into Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON — With crude oil expected to wash up Thursday night on the Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama stepped up federal efforts Thursday to help clean up the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, putting the Department of Defense at the ready and dispatching three Cabinet officers to the scene.

The president spoke Thursday with the governors of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi, and in brief remarks from the White House Rose Garden he said the government was using "every single available resource at our disposal."

My Comment: I presume that the U.S. military will assist in the placement of booms as well as protecting it's own naval assets in the region. But this disaster is too big for any one group to take a handle of the situation .... the military included.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) shakes hands with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani during their meeting in Thimphu, capital of Bhutan, on April 29, 2010. (Xinhua/Chen Zhanjie)

From L.A. Times:

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meet in Bhutan and officials later say they will open discussions on ‘all issues of mutual concern.’ The U.S. would like to see Pakistan focus more troops on Afghanistan and fewer on India.

Senior Indian and Pakistani officials pledged Thursday to improve frosty relations between their nations following a meeting between their prime ministers at the periphery of a regional summit in Bhutan.

Lowering the temperature between the wary nuclear neighbors has been a key goal of the United States in its broader bid to root out terrorism in South Asia.

Women To Start Serving On Submarines, But Not Everyone's On Board -- FOX News

Despite concerns from critics over privacy, costs and the possibility of sexual activity, the Navy says it's ready, willing, able, and now ready to put women on submarines. FOXNews' Diane Macedo gets an unprecedented look aboard the USS Alaska to see what hurdles the Navy needed to overcome.Another exclusive "men's club" is about to go coed: The U.S. Navy will soon allow women to serve on submarines.

Women have served side-by-side with men for decades in all branches of the military, but submarines, up until now, have remained off-limits. The reason, the Navy says, was privacy. Crew members generally sleep 9 to a room. Up to 40 people can share one bathroom. Even officers bunk together.

(Click to Enlarge)Baffling: The PowerPoint slide shown to US commanders shows security, economic and political conditions in Afghanistan. The dark blue arrows represent Afghan National Security Forces with the enemy in red. Other arrows highlight corruption, tribal favouritism and drug trafficking.

'When We Understand That Slide, We'll Have Won The War:' US Generals Given Baffling PowerPoint Presentation To Try To Explain Afghanistan Mess -- The Daily Mail

Its coloured charts, graphs and bullet-points are supposed to make the most incomprehensible data crystal clear.

But even the sharpest military minds in American were left baffled by this PowerPoint slide, a mind-boggling attempt to explain the situation in Afghanistan.

'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war,' General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander, remarked wryly when confronted by the sprawling spaghetti diagram in a briefing.

The Greek horror story should scare us all, says Edmund Conway. Its problems are not unique.

It has all the ingredients for a perfect Hollywood sequel. The cliffhanger plot kicks off right where its predecessor ended; the cast is stellar, some characters from the original reprising their roles. But this time the stakes are even higher, the mood even tenser.

Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy. Based on almost any yardstick, markets are now betting that the government will default on its debt. At a staggering 18 per cent, the going rate to borrow for a mere two years is similar to the penal rates credit card companies charge their dodgiest customers. The government, International Monetary Fund and European Union have promised, vaguely, to hand over the necessary cash to help tide the country over, but to no avail.

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – Offshore winds pushed a giant oil slick closer to the Louisiana coast Thursday amid a frenzied effort by authorities to contain what one official said had become a disaster of "national significance."

The White House pledged "all available resources," including the military, to avoid an environmental catastrophe, and the Defense Department said it was studying ways to help as officials revealed that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was far worse than believed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan has shifted 100,000 of its troops from its Indian frontier to spearhead an unprecedented crackdown on militants along the Afghan border, but the offensives are unlikely to have an immediate impact on the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

In a report to Congress released on Wednesday, the Pentagon estimated that about 140,000 Pakistani troops were taking part in offensives against militants in the semi-autonomous tribal regions, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, and the Northwest Frontier Province, near Afghanistan.

South of the border, down Mexico way, a new and savage revolution rages just beyond our inspection lanes. After less than five years of fighting, estimates of the dead have reached 22,000.

The rate of killing accelerates each month. And Washington covers its eyes like a kid at a scary movie. Well, the Mexican narco-insurgency, in which well-armed guerrilla forces confront the authority and presence of the state, is our No. 1 security challenge.

The chaos in northern Mexico has far deeper implications for our country than Islamist terror or even an Iranian nuclear capability (as grim as those threats are).

My Comment: I was a constant traveler to Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s. It was my #1 tourist destination during my winter break .... tequila, rum, and Mexican food coupled with sunshine and beach volleyball .... for me .... Mexico was paradise, especially outside of the tourist areas.

This has not been the case since the early 1990s .... and I have stayed away since then. Crime, government corruption and grinding poverty .... coupled with the rise of the narco trade and the criminal culture that it breeds has killed the Mexico that I learned to love and respect. Now .... I see the same problems that have plunged Mexico into the mess that it is in today slowly creeping into the southern U.S., with cities like Tuscon and Phoenix bearing the brunt of this onslaught.

The only thing that I am surprised about is that only 70% of the people in Arizona favor the state's new immigration law. Considering what is happening .... I expected this total to be closer to 90%. Hmmmm .... give it time .... give it time.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.